Long-term experiment

<p>A long-term experiment is an <a href="/facts/Experiment/esltM54f">experimental</a> procedure that runs through a long period of time, in order to test a <a href="/facts/Hypothesis/gMABEJul">hypothesis</a> or observe a phenomenon that takes place at an extremely slow rate.
What duration is considered "long" depends on the <a href="/facts/Academic_discipline/pKoQHpYL">academic discipline</a>.
For example, several agricultural <a href="/facts/Field_experiment/HnYkuuhf">field experiments</a> have run for more than 100 years, but much shorter experiments may qualify as "long-term" in other disciplines.  An <a href="/facts/Experiment/esltM54f">experiment</a> is "a set of actions and observations", implying that one or more treatments (fertilizer, subsidized school lunches, etc.) is imposed on the system under study.  Long-term experiments therefore contrast with nonexperimental long-term studies in which manipulation of the system studied is impossible (e.g. Jupiter's <a href="/facts/Great_Red_Spot/8gbPpAJB">Great Red Spot</a>) or undesirable (e.g. field observations of <a href="/facts/Common_chimpanzee/JXSpFsHy">chimpanzee</a> behavior).
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Long-term experiment open-in-new

Long-term experiment